Aside from a brief Q&A session, HD DVD was strictly off the menu at Toshiba’s annual product tradeshow in Hertfordshire earlier today.

Journalists present were told Toshiba representatives at the show would not be commenting on the company’s decision to drop its HD DVD business, which was formally announced on Tuesday.

During the Q&A session a spokesman denied recent HD DVD player price cuts were an attempt to shift stock before the announcement, insisting they were simply trying to make high definition video affordable.

Indeed, many of the Toshiba representatives appeared just as surprised as we were about the company’s decision. As you can see, the DVD player room at the tradeshow looked very empty with just a few upscaling DVD players on show.

Toshiba says it will continue to support those who have bought HD DVD players (700,000 units have been shifted), but it added that it would cease all HD DVD shipments by the end of March.

Unsurprisingly, Toshiba confirmed there were no plans to manufacture Blu-ray drives, but it did say it was still reviewing its PC drive strategy for HD DVD.